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Nature
The is one of the six magical Realms in Master of Magic. Nature is somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades school, though its forte may be in summoning whole armies of powerful magical creatures to stampede opponents. The Nature Realm has numerous Summoning Spells at all Rarity levels, and the creatures accessed by casting them are mobile and tough. The other spells of this school are directed at the ground, as often as not, and offer more esoteric effects and tools to the wizard. These include minor protections, snares in combat, fast exploration, and even wholesale terraforming. Nature is mildly opposed to Chaos; while wizards are not barred from owning spellbooks of both colors, green offers some direct counters to red. A very practical color for the human player, this realm buffs his followers (though not as over-the-top as ), hits hard (though not with the force of or ), and plays unconventionally (though not so much so as ). Experienced players who choose to forego nature books altogether tend to miss them. __TOC__ Description Master of Magic's documentation declares that green magic is "rooted in the land," a part of Arcanus and Myrror. There may still be a Nature Realm, a lush parallel plane of existence that embodies pure natural concepts, powers the Nature Nodes, and serves as home to the various Fantastic Creatures linked with this school. These beings are decidedly supernatural, with qualities like impossible size and strength and the ability to turn enemies to stone. They are sustained in the mundane world with binding rituals and a steady infusion of mana. The Nature Realm is the object of both study and worship by animistic cults in the game, and by any agency opposed to Chaos. Recognizing the value of good crop yields at home and a resilient front line, even wizards with no interest in this school of magic may bankroll druidic and shamanic orders in their territories. Nature magic seems to manifest in the evocation of biomatter, water, earth, and ice, and lends itself well to peaceful endeavors. It offers its share of violent ways to maintain the status-quo, as well. ;Familiar :A wizard with mainly Nature spellbooks will take a Serpent as a familiar. Serpents are an ancient symbol of death and creation in cultures across the world. The green hue signifies fertility. Realm Details Nature has 10 spells per degree of Spell Rarity, totaling 40 spells with a cumulative research cost of . Each member holds a discrete cost increment along the spectrum between (Earth to Mud) and (Nature's Wrath). Green spells have a tendency to aim directly at the map tiles, for the benefit of the caster's side or the frustration of his enemies. It also has a variety of direct summoning spells. List of Nature Spells Rival Wizards When the world is generated, computer-controlled wizards each make a lottery-ball style roll for Personality and Objective. These traits modify the wizard's behavior, giving them some hard-to-resist compulsions and adding flavor. If the wizard's shelf is stocked primarily with , this realm will influence the rolls, tending the wizard towards a Personality of "Lawful" and an Objective of "Perfectionist" (but no guarantees). In cases where spellbook ranks are tied, and the game needs to decide which realm conveys influence, precedence descends in this order: : Since Nature takes precedence over the other colors, a default split-profile wizard like Merlin ( ) will take a personality and objective corresponding to probabilities dictated by his Nature ranks, not his Life ones. The table below shows the chances each character trait has of appearing on a Nature wizard, before accounting for the influence of Retorts. ;Lawful :On the diplomatic scale of 100 to -100, a "Lawful" wizard has a +10 Core Reaction to all of the other wizards, including the human player. Before performing a hostile act, this wizard formally nullifies treaties. The chance of this happening is reduced by 40 percentage points (usually to zero or less) unless the player has violated a treaty before, in which case it is increased by 40 percentage points. Diplomatic point losses are always doubled with a "Lawful" wizard. Generally, these wizards are a ticking time bomb... softer, even, than "Peaceful" until relations dip negative or a treaty gets broken, at which point they get extremely belligerent. ;Perfectionist :A "Perfectionist" wizard has double the chance of initiating construction of a Town Building, and a correspondingly reduced chance of commencing work on a new unit. The wizard is also dedicated to throwing positive enchantments on his cities, when these are available. Aggression against computer-controlled green wizards may need special preparation. Nature spells are surprisingly vicious in combat, and on high difficulty settings, these players build up a strong military-industrial concern. Since the wizards are benign and do not gain any overland attacks through this realm until late, you have time to prepare. Green Diplomacy Modifiers Rival wizards make one initial adjustment to their Core Reaction to a green wizard (human or otherwise): Example: Tlaloc adjusts his Core Reaction to Freya by +8 ( held in common) Leader personalities, retorts, and other spellbooks will make further adjustments. Fantastic Units There are eleven Fantastic Units associated with , all of which are vanguard attack units designed for muscle in combat. One, the Earth Elemental, is a combat-only summon, while the rest are called into the game by ordinary overland Summoning Spells. The Earth Elemental is the most hard-hitting and durable combat summon there is, but it's a Rare Spell. The Common entries, War Bears and Sprites, can fill substantial roles when selected as starting spells. The War Bears are a strike unit, on par perhaps with a generic Cavalry unit, that may come into sudden demand with the appearance of a Mountaineer (since the bears are Foresters, the combined stack achieves Pathfinding). The Sprites are a higher-budget item, able to fly and pelt enemies with four magical volleys per battle; they can explore for choice targets of conquest early on, and may even be able to lay siege to places without being at risk themselves. The Uncommon Giant Spiders, Cockatrices, and Basilisk are expensive to research and produce. They test enemy and make good company for heroes and mixed attack forces. The Rare Stone Giant and Gorgons play to the same tune. The three Very Rare members of this realm, the Behemoth, Colossus, and Great Wyrm, are gigantic monsters, with high attack, defense, and hitpoint scores. Most Nature Realm creatures have high initiative. To begin with, they have a Movement Allowance of at least (or in the case of the Earth Elemental, he can appear on a chosen combat tile and attack immediately). The Great Wyrm can also teleport anywhere on the battlefield. The Giant Spiders can snare enemy units, and the Basilisk can attack flying units because it has a Gaze Attack. Some of the units have strong ranged attacks or stoning attacks designed to bully the enemy before melee begins, and the units of the realm are generally quite good in melee. :1 : Combat summon, disappears at end of battle. Item Crafting Ranks in this color unlock the following spell-like effects that may be employed in Item Crafting, to augment heroes' gear. Spell knowledge allows combat spells to be Charged into an item. | style="padding:24px;" | |} Nature Encounter Zones Creatures of appear very frequently as foes in Encounter Zones. The world generator has a chance creating Nature units in the following zones: Every lair makes a procedural selection of guardians through what is essentially a budget. When it can afford to stock defenders at all, there will typically be one or more higher-end units of the lair's Realm (this is the creature sighted by scouts who peek into the lair), attended by a lesser unit type. Abandoned Keeps, Dungeons, Monster Lairs, and Mysterious Caves always roll Nature creatures. Towers of Wizardry can have anything; the world generator always places six towers, so about two-thirds of the time, a map is going to have at least one green magic tower. Nature Nodes always have Nature Realm creatures. In total, 16 Nodes appear on Arcanus and 14 on Myrror, and any one of these could be a Nature Node with a substantial garrison. Nature has a fairly high minimum cost for generating a creature in a lair (War Bears at 70 points). Some lairs will therefore be undefended. Any unconquered lair with Nature Realm creatures can eject a horde of Rampaging Monsters. This will be a randomly-generated Nature group whose strength will correspond with the number of game turns elapsed and has nothing to do with the lair's defenders. The turn after it appears, it will make for a nearby city and attack. The group can consist of any number of different species of Nature units. Category:Nature Category:Magical Realms